


Through the glass wall of time

by Nevi



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-20
Updated: 2012-10-20
Packaged: 2017-11-16 15:40:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/541095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevi/pseuds/Nevi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU, After "Arrival", the reapers don't appear again during Shepard's lifetime.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through the glass wall of time

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for this prompt on MEK:
> 
> "Idea: After destroying the Alpha relay in "Arrival", Shepard and crew prepare for the coming war against the Reapers...
> 
> But they don't show. It turns out the Reapers were deep enough in dark space that, without a relay to use as a shortcut, they're not going to reach any inhabited system for centuries. And Shepard, who assumed she'd be leading the fight against them, has to slowly accept that not only is this war not going to be over in her lifetime... it's not even really going to start in her lifetime.
> 
> Basically, I want a Shepard trying to adapt to a 'normal' life, knowing that the Reapers are coming but that there's not a lot she can do about it.
> 
> Prefer FemShep/Liara, so she can angst about how Liara's going to have to face the coming invasion alone someday..."
> 
> Story originally posted: June 27, 2012

“Again”

A singularity appears in the space in front of them followed by the crack of a pistol. Her father counts the seconds until the singularity dissipates. 

“Again”

***

She looks up at her mother, large eyes taking in her soft features, a tiny blue hand grasping her fingers. “Why are you crying mommy?”

***

She’s carried on her father’s shoulders, the wind rolling over her fringe as she flies arms outstretched and grasping at the shear glee of the moment. “More, more!” She shrieks as they run through the back yard and past the row of trees at the end of the lot. “More!”

***

“Again”

The row of target dummies fly off to the sides as a shockwave echoes through the yard. She’s tired and just wants to hang out with her friends. Her wise eyes of youth begin to narrow and she can feel herself getting angrier by the second.

“Again” Her father looks at her with older calculating eyes.

“Why?” Her voice is laced with venom “This is stupid, the Reapers don’t even exist, if they did people would talk about them and they don’t!”

Her father looks as if she has been slapped. But she is glowering over the young asari before she even registers the movement. “They do, and no daughter of mine is going to be their fodder.”

Her father points fiercely at a new set of dummies “Again!”

***

She sees her mother and father wrapped in an embrace. Her mother has her head leaning on her father’s chest. She can hear them murmuring softly to one another, but she can’t hear about what from her place in the shadows at the top of the stairs. Her father strokes her mother’s face and fringe gently, from her spot on the stairs she can see a single tear slide down her mother’s cheek, glistening in the faint luminescence of night.

***

She sees her mother slumped in the chair of the living room, her azure hands covering her lightly freckled face, her shoulders shuddering violently as the emotion wracks her body.

Heaviness eases into her chest and her throat tightens. “Momma?”

***

Her father tells her a bed time story; it is filled with monsters and heroes. It is too unbelievable to be true. Her father and mother wishes it wasn’t.

***

She watches as her father’s ashes are scattered into the wind. Her hand grasps onto her mother’s tightly. Her mother turns to her, once bright blue eyes dulled with sorrow. “We have to keep training little wing, we have to make sure we are ready. It’s what she would want.”

She simply nods, feeling the hot sting in her eyes.

***

Her mother throws out a singularity and she follows it, she is so much better now than she was. The quick snap of the pistol echoes and she sees the target drop. She thinks her father would be proud.

***

Her father has been gone for decades when the sky darkens and the thundering bass of the lasers cut thru the first of the cities. But she is ready, she has trained for this.

***

Her mother finds old prothean blue prints in the archives. A weapon, they will build it and they will win.

***

“Commander Shepard” She turns as she hears her name and looks at the young salarian in front of her.

“Is the crucible ready?” She asks before he can continue. He shifts nervously on his feet. “We are missing the catalyst.”

Her fingers press on the bridge of her nose; it is a gesture of her father. “We need to find it.”

***

“By the goddess” Her mother looks at her with wide eyes. They stand above a galaxy map and witness as another planet goes dark.

***

She hears the wail of a Banshee as she runs through the caverns. Her armor is slick with blood and she is breathing heavy, the pistol in her hands nothing but cold comfort, the heat sinks long since used.

***

She stands straight as she addresses the fleet, her fleet. Her voice is steadfast like her father’s and it is something her mother use to tease her about, she is just like her father to have a penchant for speeches. 

***

The attack is ordered and she watches with her father’s eyes the ruthless calculus of war.

***

She sits between her parents, their arms wrapped around her in loving embrace. She is filled with the comfort of home and her small feet kick against the side of the deck they sit on. The sun is lowering and the air is still warm. In her peripheral vision she can see them kiss softly. She is happy.

“I think it’s time for bed little wing” Her father kisses the top of her head, and her mother scoops her up. 

***

She stares down her own lightly freckled nose, brows furrowing at the battle raging outside the ship she commands. She has done all she can, and she will beat them.

She will fulfil her father’s legacy.

***

Through the glass wall of time she sees the flashes of her life through the stare of a Reaper’s eye, and down the barrel of her gun. Beams of white and red cross the atmosphere, and the daughter of the once Commander Shepard and Doctor T’soni knows her place in the galaxy.


End file.
